Barcelona

Which sights are you interested in?

The 'for certain' site to pre-purchase tickets is Sagrada Familia. Without pre-purchased tickets, you could wait hours to enter. I would encourage you to go ahead and buy on line as soon as possible and for as early in the morning as you can handle. Last October, the lines waiting to buy tickets was extremely long at 9:00 am. It was great to walk to the head of the line and enter with zero waiting. When we entered there was little crowd, but by the time we left, it was getting really crowded.
Sagrada Familia is amazing....

I am traveling with my 70 year old mom, 2 teenage daughters, sister-in-law, and 10 year old niece. Would like to see Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila (night or day?), Montserrat, Park Guell, Monjuic, maybe the soccer stadium. We have 5 full sight-seeing days. Thanks!

Thanks Kathryn- Am going to buy those now!

Ok, I went to the Sagrada Familia website and I have a couple of questions. Which tower should I choose? It looks like the Passion Facade has an elevator that takes you up and down, which might be good for my mom. The Nativity Facade appears to have an elevator up, but stairs down? Again, thanks for your help.

Forgot one thing! SORRY! Should we do an audio-guide for Sagrada Familia or just go through?

We did not do Sagrada Familia when we were there. We did go to Parc Guel and it is open to the public for free sort of like a park in the US. I would caution there are some stairs and uphill climbs which will be fine for you and the kids but might be hard on the 70 year old mom depending on her condition. Having said that, it was a great sight and would highly recommend it.

Look on line for the Sagrada Familia official web site (not one of the tour companies)...You can get ticket information there...I did, thanks for your comment about it as I will be there in September.

Hi, Robbin Go to TripAdvisor.com and you'll see comments about visting La Sagrada Familia. One tower is supposed to have a better view. But bear in mind the other comments that the line waiting to get up the towers can be long and the stairs are steep coming down. How fit is your mother? The audioguide is about 90 mins long. I think there is child version. With two teenagers and a 10 year old, do you think they might be bored after an hour? Are they the type who wants to know all the details or just a quick look is good enough?

Buy online before you go. We did the morning of and had the hotel print them (you get emailed a PDF). You can also buy them at certain ATMs. We did do the audioguide, but it was just the two of us (40 yo). I am not sure my 11 yo son would have been able to hang on for the full thing (I think 1.5 hours). We did go up in the Nativity Tower. Stairs are narrow and steep on the way down. My 72 yo Mom would not have been able to do it. On a related note, we did do the very popular Bus Tourisic, which is a hop on, hop off bus. Usually I don't like those types of things, but it was well worth it to get an overview of the sights and so you can go back to what you like. It covers everything on your list but Montserrat (that's a train ride outside of the city). I would do the bus the first day or two of the trip.

Robbin, I was in Barcelona a few weeks ago and bought tickets online for the Sagrada Familia and other sights in Spain. Although I bought my tickets the day prior to my visit, for travel at the end of July I'd suggest getting them well in advance (especially for a larger group). I was only buying a single ticket, so it wasn't much of a problem. I first tried buying tickets at one of the La Caixa "super ATMs", but found that wasn't exactly a "user friendly" experience. It would only provide a few dates, well in the future. I went back to the hotel and booked them online where a greater choice of dates was offered. I then picked up the tickets at the La Caixa ATM, using the credit card that I purchased the tickets with. That method was quick and easy, worked so much better. There was a "super ATM" within a one minute walk from the hotel, which was very convenient! I decided to take visit the Passion Tower, and I chose that mainly because I didn't want to hike down (knee problem). That's the one that might be best for your group (you may have to split your group in two, as the Elevator only holds about six plus the operator). The space is a bit "tight" in the tower, but it provides some nice views. While the Elevator is air conditioned, waiting in the queue is not, and it will be hot and muggy so be prepared (bring water). Your tower ticket will be for a specific time, so be sure you're there at least ten minutes or so before your appointment! There's also a Museum downstairs which has some interesting displays and a small movie theatre that shows some of the construction of the Sagrada Familia (it's also a great place to have a rest!). Washrooms are near the entrance to the Museum. !Bon Viatge

Thanks for all of the great information. We did go ahead and purchase tickets to most of the things that we would like to do. In addition to making that process easier, it also gives us an idea of what we are doing each day. Looking forward to a great trip:)